Glen Johnson is the only constant member in one of my favourite bands, Piano Magic. This is his first solo album. Johnson says: "The songs on the solo album were written and recorded when Piano Magic was on hiatus. Some of them most likely could have been on a Piano Magic record but I was just too impatient to wait for us to get going again as a band." I am a bit biased but this is a great album!

"Playing for Change: Peace Through Music" is a documentary by Mark Johnson about the simple but transformative power of music. The film brings together musicians from around the world — blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, chamber groups in Moscow, a South African choir — to collaborate on songs familiar and new, in the effort to foster a new, greater understanding of our commonality. The Playing For Change Foundation is dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources (facilities, supplies, educational programs, etc) to musicians and their communities around the world.Please support this effort! The film soundtrack and DVD will be in stores on 28.4.2009.

Rachel's is an American post-rock group formed in Louisville, USA, in 1991. The core members are guitarist Jason Noble, violist Christian Frederickson and pianist Rachel Grimes. The group’s work is strongly influenced by classical music, particularly inspired by the minimalist music of the late 20th century. While the trio forms the core part of the band, the group’s recordings and performances feature a varying ensemble of musicians, who play a range of string instruments (including viola and cello) in combination with piano, guitars, electric bass guitar, and a drum set that includes a large orchestral bass drum. This album, the band's second, is the soundtrack to a piece of dance and theater that was based on the life of the controversial Viennese painter Egon Schiele. A pure masterpiece!

Broadway Project is musician Dan Berridge from Bristol. His music combines elements of ambient, jazz and hip hop and, of course, is influenced by the famous Bristol scene and trip-hop. He has released four albums to date; this is the second one, a great trip-hop album!

Arca is a french project initiated by Joan Cambon and Sylvain Chauveau at the beginning of 2000. The band's name is a reference to the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, the word "arca" means "chest" in Portuguese (Pessoa left most of his writings inside a chest that was discovered after he died). Arca is inspired by music, cinema, literature, photographs, daily occidental sounds. They use warm electronic sounds, mixed with organic instruments and rainy guitars to draw melancholic landscapes. This is their second album. Highly recommended!

Eksperimentoj is a progressive rock band from Japan formed in May 2002. This is their first album released in January 2007 through Hurricane Records. Their sound is a fusion of post-rock and progressive rock which they call "sound art". The name "eksperimentoj" means "experiments" in Esperanto.

2 By Bukowski is a post-rock band from Thessaloniki, Greece, but its members live in London, UK. They first formed in 1998 and after releasing their first two mini attempts, they recorded this debut album in 2001 at the great independent Greek label Poeta Negra. An excellent album, influenced by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Get it!

Artist: 2 By BukowskiAlbum: What a long strange journey this has beenYear: 2001Genre: post-rock, instrumental

Tracks:1. Buckle Up Scully, I Believe Chuck Here Is About To Take Us On A Ride To The Abnormal2. It's Time To Hybernate3. ZAGADKA4. 8 Steps Of The Crane And The Snake5. Burn Witch, The Sorceress6. Solution: Sarrus

La Casa are Pierre Le Feuvre and Jean-Francois Peculier from Saint-Denis les Gastines, France, that play beautiful folk music obviously influenced by Calexico and Ennio Morricone. From last.fm: "We travel in electronic rhythms through desert, beneath a full-stared grey sky, where you meet “droughtful” classical guitar tunes and inspired trumpet: the Mariachi way". This is a very promising debut! Recommended!

This is the first album of Matt Elliott under his birth name. In a previous post, I have already presented an album from his previous project, The Third Eye Foundation. The Mess We Made is a chaotic post-rock/folk workout, marking a departure for Elliott into darker, more twisted territory than ever before. A must!

The Criminal Court in Nicosia, Cyprus, decided today, on the case of two students beaten by 10 police officers the morning of 20th of December 2005, not to accept as evidence material the above video taken by citizen on the grounds that it "denies the right to a fair trial to defendants police officers". Therefore, the police officers in the video are innocent! Outrageous!

What's the next step? The Greek riots answered this a couple of months ago:

A classic documentary about the famous "blue-eyed/brown-eyed" exercise, created by the American teacher and anti-racism activist Jane Elliott in the 1960s. Elliott divided her class by eye color - those with blue eyes and those with brown. On the first day, the blue-eyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than those with brown eyes. Throughout the day, Elliott praised them and allowed them privileges such as a taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch line. In contrast, the brown-eyed children had to wear collars around their necks and their behavior and performance were criticized and ridiculed by Elliott. On the second day, the roles were reversed and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior while the brown eyes were designated the dominant group.

A great documentary, a daring lesson in the meaning of discrimination!

Kammerflimmer Kollektief ("Ventricular Fibrillation Collective") is a German experimental jazz-electronica group characterised by soothing, throbbing soundscapes accented with disjointed sounds played by instruments such as the saxophone. Although the fragile rhythms draw heavily from free-jazz improvisation the final overall effect is closer to ambient electronica. This is their fourth album. Great band!

This is one of the best albums I've listened so far this year. The Spheres are an experimental AV ensemble from Melbourne, Australia comprised of filmmakers, animators, multi-instrumentalists and expatriates collectively exploring the cross over between live music and visual projection. They play fantastic, post-rock, cinematic music. This is their only album so far, released in 2006. Amazing! Get it!

The War on Democracy is a 2007 award-winning documentary film directed by Christopher Martin and John Pilger which focuses on the historic and current relationship of USA with Latin American countries. As Pilger says, the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". The film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow". Fantastic documentary!

Collapse under the empire is a post-rock band from Hamburg, Germany, formed in 2007. They released their debut album ("Paintball EP") in May 2008. This is their first full-length album. Their sound is a combination of epic guitars with chilled electronic elements and a portion melancholic mood. Great album, highly recommended!

Tracks:1. Monumental Sequence2. Sky Falling3. Innocence4. The Taste Of Last Summer5. Quiet Dimension6. Environmental Obsession7. Turn8. Depending On You9. Further Than The End Of The World10. Buried In PiecesOfficial WebsiteLast.fmMySpace

This album is a self-release. Please support the band! Buy from here.Check the comments to listen first.

This is one of my favourite albums. Espers is a psych-folk band from Philadelphia, USA, formed in 2002. This is actually their third album, after their debut self-titled album (2003) and "The Weed Tree" (2005), an album of cover songs. Excellent band ...and this is their best album so far!

Night On Earth is Greek trip-hop band with blues noir/jazz influences. Their sound is more influenced by the images of Jim Jarmusch and Wong Kar Wai than a specific musical movement. Their live shows are occasionally accompanied by visuals, short films and performance. This is their debut double album released in 2006. The first disc, "Stage", is a top-class trip-hop album while the second one, "Radio", is more experimental, full of improvisations.

Elizabeth Anka Vagajic is a singer and guitarist from Montreal who writes dark folk/blues music. This is her excellent debut album released by the great independent label Constellation Records, the label of some of the greatest post-rock bands in the world (GYBE, Silver Mt. Zion and Do Make Say Think). A few members from those bands play in this record. Absolutely brilliant album!

The Third Eye Foundation is a single man project of Matt Elliott, a protagonist of the Bristol scene. In the early 90s, Elliott was a part-time member of the legendary Bristol bands Flying Saucer Attack, Amp and Movietone. In 1995, he recorded his first album ("Semtex") under the name The Third Eye Foundation. In 2003, he released his first album under his name Matt Elliott, the fantastic "The Mess we Made". This is my favourite album by The Third Eye Foundation. Highly recommended!

In a perfect world, Thalia Zedek would be one of the most successful artists (commercially). But this is ain't no perfect world and Thalia Zedek's records have limited commercial success, even though she has been highly acclaimed by music critics throughout her career. In the 1990s, she was a member of the influential American indie band Come. This is her first solo album released in 2001. An "old-fashioned" rock album by one of the strongest vocalists in music. Don't miss it!

Zoë Keating is a Canadian cellist. She was a second chair cellist in the cello rock band Rasputina from 2002 to 2006. In her solo recordings (a project called "One Cello x 16"), she uses electronic sampling and repetition to layer the sound of her cello. This is her second album (after the EP "One Cello x 16"). Beautiful music!

Melina Mercouri was one of the greatest actresses and political figures in modern Greek history. Fifteen years are completed today since she died.

From her first film, Stella (1955). The most famous scene

and a song "Αγάπη που 'γινες δίκοπο μαχαίρι" ("Love that became a double-edged knife") by Manos Hadjidakis from the same movie:

"Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά" by Manos Hadjidakis (won Academy Award for Best Song) in the famous movie "Never On Sunday" ("Ποτέ την Κυριακή") in 1960:

Melina Mercouri was also an activist and a politician. She was the Greek Minister of Culture during 1981-1989 and 1993-1994. She was the person that proposed the Cultural Capital of Europe idea and she also advocated the return of Parthenon Marbles from the British museum to Athens.

Your Hand In Mine consists of two students, Manos Milonakis and George Papadopoulos, from Thessaloniki, Greece, and play beautiful ambient, experimental music . They have taken their name from the a song of Explosions in the Sky. Their first self-titled album (EP) was released in 2007 in a 100 handmade cd copies. In the summer of 2007, they composed original music for Mikio Naruse’s (or here) silent masterpiece Every Night Dreams which they presented live at Thessaloniki’s International Film Festival in November. Every Night Dreams was officially released by Inner Ear label in 2008. There were supporting band in important gigs in Greece the past 2 years: Max Richter, Tuxedomoon and Manyfingers. Don't miss this one! Absolutely brilliant!

Yndi Halda are from Canterbury, UK. "Yndi Halda" is Old Norse for "Enjoy Eternal Bliss", also the name of their debut I post today. A great post-rock album. The band also creates distinctive, individualised hand-made covers. Recommended!

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